Puerto Rico's House of Art.

• Author: Luxner, Larry
• Position: Brief Article

PUERTO RICO BOASTS a world-class astronomical observatory, a tropical rain forest, a phosphorescent bay, and the Caribbean's largest shopping mall--but until recently, it didn't have a single museum where locals or tourists could enjoy uniquely Puerto Rican art.

No longer. Last July, after five years of planning and construction, the visually stunning Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico opened its doors in the heart of Santurce, a San Juan commercial district that's beginning to bounce back after years of decay.

"We had one thousand members before we ever opened our doors," says Myrna Perez, director of development and membership. "Today, there are over three thousand members, one-third of whom are families paying $100 a year to belong."

The museum is an ambitious, $55 million project funded by Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank. In fact, the bank's former president, Marcos Rodriguez Ema, is chairman of the museum's board of trustees.

Since its inauguration, over eighty-five thousand people have visited the museum, says Perez, as she leads a guided tour through the building's glass doors and out to a sculpture garden overlooking the city.

"Before we built the museum, this was a municipal hospital and a parking lot for government employees. A lot of people who visit tell us they were born here," she says.

In 1996, Rodriguez and Luis Fortuno, former president of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, were instrumental in convincing then-governor Pedro Rossello to support the idea of creating a central home for the greatest works by Puerto Rican artists.

The result: a 130,000-square-foot, 1920s neoclassical structure designed by local architects Otto Reyes and Luis Gutierrez that houses not only art galleries but also a four-hundred-seat auditorium, a gift shop, and even a gourmet restaurant, Pikayo. Outside, the garden is decorated with 106,000 plants and twenty-six species of trees--including a yellow flamboyant and a royal palm.

Mercedes Trelles Hernandez, the museum's curator, says the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena had a Museum of Fine Arts in Old San Juan, which closed in the 1980s. There's also a museum of Latin American Graphic Arts in San Juan, while Sagrado Corazon University in Santurce has a Museum of Contemporary Art.

"There have been small museums here and there, but until now there's been no museum with the strong commitment we have in promoting Puerto Rican art," says Trelles, who graduated from Harvard with a degree in art...